Court denies HISD board candidate’s appeal

A potential candidate for the Houston school board has lost a legal appeal to be placed on the ballot this November.

Anthony Madry, a former administrator for the Houston Independent School District, had asked the 14th Court of Appeals to force HISD to accept his application to run for the school board. The district had rejected it, saying it was incomplete because Madry failed to list the specific seat he was seeking.

The court on Tuesday denied Madry’s petition but did not give specific reasons in its brief written opinion (see below).

Madry’s attorney, Anthony A. Shepherd, said Tuesday afternoon that he needed to discuss any possible next steps with his client.

There was some confusion over whether Madry was seeking the District IX or the District VI seat. But he lives in District VI, a seat held by Greg Meyers. Unless something changes, the court’s decision keeps Madry out of the race and means Meyers, who has no other competitors, will get another four-year term.

Shepherd suggested that HISD was playing favorites by not pointing out sooner that Madry left part of his application blank. Madry submitted his application five days before the filing deadline.

“It was almost to protect your incumbent. That’s what I don’t like about it,” Shepherd said.

HISD countered with a statement from attorney David Thompson.

“HISD takes its responsibilities very seriously under the Texas Election Code. It absolutely does not favor incumbents in terms of individuals filing to run for the Board of Education, as clearly demonstrated by the fact that other individuals did not have difficulty filing to run against incumbents,” the statement said in part. “HISD supports the right of all citizens to actively participate in our great democratic process, and it hopes that this unfortunate incident will have the beneficial result of encouraging individuals to review carefully their applications in the future.”